Burton & Co., CPAs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Victorious SEO, an SEO agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Burton & Co., CPAs?

We’re a small business that employs about 30 people, so historically we’ve outsourced our bookkeeping and accounting services. Our previous third-party accountant had some serious issues with delays, errors in bookkeeping, and incorrect tax-filings.

Because of this, we needed a new vendor, someone who was able to adapt to the technology fluency that exists in my company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I first hired Dave (Partner & CPA, Burton & Co., CPAs) to file our business's tax returns. Once tax-season ended, we hired him to take over our monthly bookkeeping. That included monthly calls where he’d go over our profit and loss (P&L) statements and balance sheets.

He also helped us with accounts receivable and account payables. That involved lots of chasing down people not paying us on time, which became a huge timesaver for us.

As things started progressing, he started working on things that fell outside of the initial scope we hired him for. He built forecasting spreadsheets for our cash flow. He helped plan our hiring strategy to make sure we hired people at times that didn't put cash crunches on our business.

He also helped optimize our employee compensation, determine where we should invest in marketing and sales, and figure out best practices and benchmarks.

As a small SEO business, we were flying by the seat of our pants from a financial perspective. He helped us make really important decisions. This led to his scope expanding to the role he’s in today, where he’s our fully outsourced finance department and external CFO services.

Since then, he has helped us receive our first line of credit. He’s helping us transfer to a better payment processing system that will likely save us $50,000 this year. He’ll also knock down our accounts receivable timeline from 15 to 8–9 days, which is a huge cash flow help. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Dave, and he has a support staff of four people that directly interface with us. There’s a larger staff behind that as well.

How did you come to work with Burton & Co., CPAs?

I wanted a company that was young and technologically fluent, while still being cost-effective and delivering a great product.

I met Dave at a business forum. While I considered 7–8 other companies overall, Dave’s unique ability to take really complicated financial scenarios and communicate them in an easy-to-understand way stood out. He was both cost-effective and made people feel like they were being taken care of.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this partnership in 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Transitioning to a whole new banking system helped us secure an invaluable line of credit. Not to mention, optimizing and improving our payment processes has reduced our invoice timeline dramatically. The internal financial modeling tools that Dave built have also helped us plan for the financial health of the company years into the future.

I should add that Dave has the cleanest books known to mankind, which has helped us in numerous settings. Tax strategy has also been really helpful, keeping our tax liability and tax exposure as low as possible, while also keeping the company moving forward.

How did Burton & Co., CPAs perform from a project management standpoint?

He’s fully integrated into our company. He’s on our Slack, and we’re constantly messaging back and forth. We talk on the phone at least every week. Whenever I call him, even late at night, he always picks up. If you need someone in the dead of night to run a financial modeling spreadsheet, he’ll do it. He has integrity and is a smart man who wants his clients’ businesses to be successful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re continually impressed by his communication, his attention to detail, and his ability to take a really scary and complicated part of business and make it accessible to allow us to tackle the problem.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s no way he can improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to explain your entire financial situation. You might be surprised at the knowledge and expertise that Dave and his firm have, and their ability to address problems and opportunities you weren’t even aware of.